As in every other year, this year, on April 1, people of the whole world enjoyed activities associated with the April Fools’ Day.
Bollywood movie aficionados will recall the 1964 vintage movie April fool, starring the popular pair of yesteryear, Biswajeet and Saira Banu. The lyrics of the title song of the movie goes:
April fool banaya to
Un ko gussa aaya
To mera kya kasoor
Zamane ka kasoor
Jisne dastoor banaya
Squarely laying the blame, on the perpetrators of the tradition, and not those who practice it.
Quite a number of pranks, and hoaxes, are associated with the day, a practice said to have started as early as 536 BCE, in the ancient Iranian Achaemenid Empire.
The celebration was an established tradition in Great Britain before January 1 was established as the start of the calendar year. One very amusing practice is common in Ireland. A person is chosen as the victim of the prank. She is entrusted with a so-called ‘important letter’ and asked to deliver it to a named person. That person, after reading the letter, asks the victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter, when opened, contains the words, “send the fool further!”
Another common prank, popular in the USA, is to carefully remove the cream from Oreo, a brand of sandwich cookies, and replace it with toothpaste!
As long ago as in 1708, Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels, set up a prank by pretending to be an astrologer. He gave out many predictions, the most notable of which was that a celebrated astrologer of that time, one John Partridge, would die, on March 29, that year. In fact, someone knocked on Partridge’s door, on one April, to set up funeral arrangements, and found him alive and well. For the rest of his life, Partridge had to insist that he was not dead.
In another famous prank, in 1957, the BBC broadcast a film, in their ‘Panorama’ current affairs series, purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly grown spaghetti, in what they called ‘Swiss Spaghetti Harvest’. The agency was soon flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing it to confess, in a news bulletin the next day, that the film as a matter of fact was, a hoax! It was again the BBC which, in 2008, in a display of typically British sense of humour, telecast news, claiming that penguins in Antarctica had started flying! And, of all places, to South America‘s tropical rain forests!
Not all pranks, however, are quite as innocent or harmless. Some, in fact, can cause physical, and emotional harm, to the victim, and can even be considered as harassment, or assault.
Somewhat on similar lines, on April 1, 2010, a newspaper, in Jordan, carried an article, claiming that a UFO had landed near the town of Jafr. And the Mayor of the town promptly issued an order to evacuate 13,000 people. The staff of the newspaper was constrained to issue an apologetic retraction, saying that they had meant to “entertain, not scare.”
One opinion, the positive one, is that such hoaxes, and pranks, are healthy, as they generally induce laughter and act as stress busters. Many of them have, in fact, been praised for being innovative, and creative.
One in fact, traces the practice back to Biblical roots – the time of Noah and the ark. It is suggested that Noah had made a mistake, in sending the dove out of the ark, before the water had abated, and the practice is to perpetuate the memory of that remarkable circumstance.
Another view, is that the vain cock, Chauntecleer, in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, was tricked by a fox on “Since March began thirty days and two.” And that day is on 1 April. This theory, however, is rather weak, as the same tale however, states that the story takes place when the “sun is in the sign of Taurus”, which, is not on April 1.
Some historians believe that April Fools’ Day originated from the fact that New Year’s Day was celebrated in the middle ages on March 25 in most European towns, followed by a holiday period ending on April 1. And those who celebrated New Year’s Day on January 1, made fun, of those doing it on other days.
The most widely believed of all theories is that when the Pope changed the calendar in France, according to the Roman one, those who knew nothing about the change continued celebrating New Year’s Day on April 1, and were called fools by those who were following the changed date.
Fools, and foolishness, have both often been the subject matter of authors and poets.
In fact, it is in the well-known poem, of Alexander Pope, that the saying, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”, occurs.
And with elections to Parliament, and many Legislatures, round the corner, one does not have to try too hard to find people are not exactly epitomes of wisdom. But for the fact that they do not wear caps, or hoods with bells, as buffoons, or jesters, in a circus do, one can hardly be blamed for being unable to tell the difference.
Time was, when distinguished people, having first achieved what they wanted in life, and looking for an opportunity to serve the country, and its people, entered politics. With the passage of time, however, we have now reached a stage where politics has become a business.
Very regrettably, this is true of every political party the country. They may profess in public different, if not violently varying, approaches to the concept of the welfare of the nation, and its people. When away from the discerning gaze of the people, however, they remain nothing but partners in the same murky business.
And, as Pope said, if political leaders rush in where angels fear to tread, it is hardly surprising that the workers of the parties, to which they belong, who canvas for votes, are hardly different. And, if such people get elected, and go on to occupy high offices, can one be blamed for reaching the conclusion that that the voters leave good sense behind at home before they proceed to vote in the election booths! It is really a moot point to whether it is the contesting candidate, the party worker or the voter, who is living in a fool’s paradise! While there may be some wisdom, in the saying, that a fool and his money are easily parted, it is certainly not so in the case of a politician contesting an election. He, or she, can never be accused of being unaware of what money will get, in terms of votes at the hustings.
And, while on the subject of political leaders, it is hardly surprising that Pythagoras, the great ancient mathematician-philosopher, had occasion to observe that, “a fool is known by his speech (es!), and a wise man by his silence”!
Our know-all political leaders, at the highest levels in the states and the nation, consider themselves no less than geniuses, possessing knowledge about all subjects and with ready-made solutions, at their fingertips, for all major issues facing the people of the country. One can hardly blame them, for feeling that the first part of the saying, which says “geniuses think like…”, applies to them appropriately. And, how can one blame the common man, who, on the other hand, feels that the second part of that celebrated saying, which goes, “…….fools seldom differ”, is what fits the situation?!
Here is an amusing snippet, to end this rather grave discussion, on a lighter note. There was this minister from a district of which I was once the collector, whose house boasted of an indoor swimming pool.
One day, when his gardener enquired if it was time to clean up the pool, he is said to have corrected the gardener, saying, “stupid fellow, it is a swimming fool, not a chiming pool!” Since this allusion is anonymous, perhaps one can be forgiven for imagining the minister referring to himself swimming!
Mohan Kanda was formerly a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He served as agriculture secretary to the Government of India, member of the National Disaster Management Authority and chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh (undivided).
